Jeffrey Butterfield (9 August 1929 – 30 April 2004) was an

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British and Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England national rugby union team, England, Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland, Scotland national rugby union team, Scotland, and ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, Cleckheaton RUFC,

Northampton Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...

and

Barbarians A barbarian is a person or tribe of people that is perceived to be primitive, savage and warlike. Many cultures have referred to other cultures as barbarians, sometimes out of misunderstanding and sometimes out of prejudice. A "barbarian" may ...

Rugby player and businessman.

Education and teaching career

Butterfield was educated at Whitcliffe Mount Grammar School,

Cleckheaton Cleckheaton is a town in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated south of Bradford, east of Brighouse, west of Batley and so ...

and

Loughborough College Overview Loughborough College is a large general further education college in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It provides both further education (FE) and higher education (HE) courses on a single campus. The colleg ...

, where he took a BSc. in Physical Education in 1951. He later took up a teaching post at Wellingborough Grammar School in Northamptonshire, after which he became a science master at Worksop College.

Rugby career

Butterfield began his senior rugby career with Northampton Saints and played for them 227 times.Northampton Saints Hall of Fame
/ref> In addition to his duties at Northampton he also played 54 times for Yorkshire and captained them in two County Championship finals, in 1953 and 1957. He is considered to have been one of the most gifted

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

s to have played Rugby for England and was capped 28 times and captained the team four times. He was first capped by England in 1953 against France; here he played with a fellow Northampton player Lew Cannell. Butterfield played for England for 6 years, including 28 successive matches – in his final season he was captain. Butterfield became England's most capped back, and on his watch, England won the Five Nations' Championship four times, the Triple Crown twice and a Grand Slam. As well as playing for

and England, Butterfield is celebrated for his play on the 1955 British Lions tour to South Africa where he scored tries in three of the four test matches. He later toured with the Lions in New Zealand in 1959 but here he was plagued by an injury and was unable to play in any of the matches. Butterfield was influenced as a player by the Bradford Northern Rugby League club whom he used to watch as a child. He used to watch the pre-war international outside half, Willie Davies. Of him, Butterfield said, "Willie always carried the ball in front of him with both hands. Though he always continued to run straight when he passed. I modelled my technique on his." One of the most memorable features of Butterfield's game was his near-perfect timing of a pass.

Later life

After retiring from full-time rugby, Butterfield briefly worked the paint industry and later opened the Rugby Club in Hallam Street, London, which he and his wife, Barbara, ran for 25 years. Butterfield and his family also enjoyed skiing. His later years were dogged by ill health. Butterfield was President of

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of Milton Keynes urban area, its urban area was 264,349. The River Great Ouse forms t ...

Rugby Club from 1972 until his death in 2004 and also had a unique role in developing rugby union in the Cayman Islands.Cotton, Fran (Ed.) (1984) ''The Book of Rugby Disasters & Bizarre Records''. Compiled by Chris Rhys. London. Century Publishing. Butterfield married Barbara Kirton in 1956 and they had one son (Giles).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butterfield, Jeff 1929 births 2004 deaths Northampton Saints players English rugby union players Caymanian rugby union players British & Irish Lions rugby union players from England England international rugby union players Barbarian F.C. players Alumni of Loughborough University Yorkshire County RFU players People from Heckmondwike Sportspeople from Kirklees Rugby union in the Cayman Islands Loughborough Students RUFC players Schoolteachers from Northamptonshire Rugby union players from West Yorkshire Schoolteachers from Nottinghamshire Rugby union centres People educated at Whitcliffe Mount School Teachers at Worksop College 20th-century English sportsmen